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HamPrince Hamlet bitterly opposed the marriage of his mother, Gertrude, to Claudius, her own brother-in-law, so soon after her husbands death. Moreover, Hamlet had a strange suspicion that the new king - his stepfather and former uncle - had somehow plotted his fathers mysterious demise, and he refused to cease mourning his natural father, now two months dead.
As Hamlet languished in resentfulness, he was approached by his close friend Horatio, who revealed that for three nights now castle guards had seen the former king stalking the parapets as a ghost. He persuaded the prince that his father must have some message of importance to impart, and thus Hamlet should wait with him that night for the ghost to appear again. ...
Hamlet was appalled - though not entirely surprised - at this revelation. But he was even more shaken when the ghost made a desperate plea: he ordered Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius, but cautioned that Gertrude must be spared; heaven alone should punish her for her sins.
Now, Hamlet considered himself an intellectual, not a soldier or a man of action. ...
Filled with suppressed anger toward both his mother and Claudius, and torn between doing his duty in honor and carrying out a most distasteful and bloody task, Hamlet began to act more and more erratic. ... Polonius insisted that Hamlet had become demented, and cautioned Ophelia to keep her distance. ...
Perceiving Hamlet as a possible threat to the throne, Claudius, Gertrude and Polonius hired two dull-witted courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on the prince, to learn whether he in fact coveted their power or was merely mad. But Hamlet, within minutes, recognized the charade and the motives behind it, and caustically mockcd them. And shortly, it seemed to Hamlet that everyone - including Ophelia was a spy and an informant for King Claudius and Queen Gertrude. ... After all, the thought of murdering Claudius, vile and hated though he was, still repelled Hamlet. But soon he struck upon an idea: a company of traveling actors visited Elsinore, and Hamlet persuaded them to perform a murder scene that was actually a reenactment of the death of the old king. ... When Polonius cried out for the guards, Hamlet, thinking he was Claudius, stabbed through the curtain and killed him. ...
With renewed determination, Hamlet gripped his dagger and made for Claudiusbedchamber. ...
Now Claudius, seeing the danger he was in, ordered that Hamlet be hurried off to England on the next possible ship. ...
Several days before Hamlet was taken aboard ship, he witnessed a conquering Norwegian army marching past enroute to a distant battle.
Approximate Word count = 2151
Approximate Pages = 8.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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